Councilmember Austin. Yes. Councilmember Aston. Yes. Councilmember Wilding. Yes. Councilmember Smith. Yes. Councilmember Lord. Yes. All in attendance.
Wonderful. All right. Do we have anyone here tonight that would be willing to offer invocation and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?
And all are welcome and encouraged.
And do you want to do the invocation too?
Chief,
how about we have our two chiefs come up and one pray and one lead us in the pledge?
I think this is a beautiful relationship.
Just don't trip, Chief.
Yeah, okay.
No,
prepare first and then you can leave then.
Yeah.
Okay.
This is not a normal.
Our Father in Heaven, we are grateful to have the opportunity to be here and meet
as a city council and in a public office.
and please help us tonight to make decisions that are good for the city, that will help
the city and help us unite our city because we have a good city and we just want to unite
our city and have everybody come together. We're thankful for the opportunity, like
I said, to be here. Please bless our servicemen and our first responders and that they'll
be safe, and we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you so much. All right. Our item number two on the agenda is our minute
and agenda approval. If there are not any changes, I will take a motion. I move
that we approve the minutes from our last meeting and the agenda for this
meeting. Second. Okay. This move by Council Member Aston.
Austin.
Seconded by Council Member Aston, all in favor.
Aye.
All right, we are ready for Ms. Bluffdell's presentation
for her 2025-2026 report.
And congratulations, your year is almost up.
And will you just also remind us when the pageant is?
Yes, so our upcoming pageant will be April 18th
at 6 p.m. at Inbelly Middle School.
My name is Adelie Brown. I'm your Miss Bluffdell 2025 and I just want to first
thank you guys for allowing us to be here today and to present our final
little statement for the rest of the year. This year we've been able to
attend a ton of events both my attendance and I unfortunately my second
attendant will not be here today but we've attended over 50 amazing events
that this city has put on. Ifty's a lot throughout the year but it's been
incredible. We've had some amazing opportunities to be able to serve the
community as well as raise money for charity. My favorite event that we got
to do this year was the adaptive arena, the active arena, sorry, softball game
that most of you got to participate in as well, and it was so much fun. We got
to raise over $15,000 for their organization, which was incredible. We
got to participate in over 12 parades for other cities to be able to maintain
that connection as well with those other cities and to have those relationships and I will leave
the time for my first stand as well. Hi I'm Mercedes I'm Miss Bluffdale's first attendant for 2025.
Today I wanted to start off by sharing one of my favorite memories from all the events we've
gotten to go to. From the day we got crowned to the day we give up our crowns here we have
9,408 hours to make an impact on our community and I'm proud to report that I have spent
a thousand of those hours in our city making a difference in an impact.
One of those things that I was able to do because of this program was MC the Miss Amazing
Pageant which means I got to present 67 young girls with disabilities in our community
to compete for their own title up to seven.
It was really exciting and it reminded me why I chose to run for Miss Bluffdale.
Another event that I really enjoyed was around Christmas time, I know ASL, and I helped two
little girls tell Santa Claus what they wanted for Christmas, and they wanted Pokemon cards
and unicorns and rainbows.
And without me being there and having this opportunity, I wouldn't have been able
to give that to them. And that's very special.
Thank you. And when you're reviewing the budget
tonight, just remember how much we truly made an impact on this community this year. Thank
you.
Well, we actually want to give you a round of applause.
And we would love to do a photo
with you if that's okay. Yes. Okay. Surprise. Let's do a photo. Let's go down and do
a photo.
I
have the box of tissues. Would you like it?
Yes, please.
I said I wasn't gonna cry, but I'm a crier.
It's always, we always help each other.
Good job.
Thank
you both so much.
Thank you for being advocates, ladies, for volunteerism, we're so grateful.
All right, we're to our public comment portion of the meeting.
So just as a note, if you're here for comment on the tentative budget, that is a public
hearing item and that is a separate item.
So hold off on speaking until we get to the tentative budget if that's what you're
here for.
if you're here for another reason we'd love to hear from you. So come on up.
Okay I'm not
seeing anyone wanting to come up so we will go ahead and close public comment
and we'll move to the consent agenda. If I have can get a motion on the consent
agenda. I'll move that we approve the consent agenda. Second. Okay it was moved
by Council Member Aston, seconded by Council Member Smith.
All in favor?
Aye.
All right.
So moved.
Okay.
We are now to Resolution 2026-21 and it is the short-term financing for the bridge and
Bruce and Matt are both going to team present.
I apologize.
I'm having a hard time pulling the packet up.
It's kind of slow.
Okay.
here we are.
I'm actually not sure whether, come on up Matt, you can go to the main thing.
To just kind of give an overview, I mean we can show the document on screen, but it really
is a lengthy document and doesn't tell anything. There's no graphics or anything. So if you
want me to broadcast it we can. But the real key here is that the city is in the
middle of this big project where we're building an underpass under the railway that's
got a really unique methodology of construction. We're in the process of it. We're just wrapping
up all of the approvals from the Union Pacific and the contractors are going full bore getting
prepped for starting to push the boxes. And we have some state funding that's going
to be that's already allocated according to state law, but we're not going to receive
it quite yet. And we'd like to keep the project going. And so we're requesting
the council to approve this $30 million bond, which is going to be a temporary financing
to keep the construction going in the near term. We're anticipating that the money will
be available to pay it back within about two years, but we are giving us a little bit
more time in the parameters resolution because it's hard to predict the future and you
don't know what you don't know. And so we are putting the parameters resolution,
gives us the information that kind of puts in all the guardrails of we won't do more than this,
we won't do more than this, we won't go beyond this, the rate won't be higher than this.
And by putting those guardrails in place, the council then, by approving it, allows administration
to go in and negotiate and get the bids and make it happen.
And if anything falls outside of the parameters resolution parameters, it doesn't happen.
when we come back to the drawing board.
And so the goal is to get the money,
keep the project going full bore.
We're excited about the project
and the necessity of doing it.
And with that, Matt Dugdale is our finance guru
and helps us out with all of the different bonds
that we have going on.
And I'll turn the time over to him for the details.
Thank you, Bruce.
I don't have much to add
rather than I did bring my bluff to a rodeo hat today
because I told Bruce and Stephanie on the Zoom earlier today
I would bring it.
But I'm happy to answer any questions.
I think Bruce did a stellar job
summarizing the resolution itself.
I like how he talked about guard rails.
It's called a parameters resolution.
I wish we called it a perimeter resolution
because as a council you're approving it
as long as the final terms fall within that perimeter
you delegate to the mayor and city manager
your ability to lock in the final terms of that bond.
And the reason we do that is just for flexibility
because we're dealing with investors and banks
and it just allows us to lock in
when the timing is most optimal for the city.
The indenture and supplemental documents to the resolution,
I'm happy to walk through those if it's helpful,
but essentially if the council were to approve this tonight
we would move forward and get it bid out
to the financial institutions and lock in an investor and close tentatively by the end of
May. So again, happy to, if you have any questions on the details, happy to walk you through
and bore you to death on.
There is one item I didn't mention that I think is a critical item here as well is
that the nature of this bond is that we are committing the payments are going to
becoming out of our sales tax revenue.
So that is a commitment that we're making
so that we couldn't then take out additional a debt
and commit additional sales tax revenue,
revenue except for to the extent
that we can meet all the coverage requirements
that they'll have with respect to that revenue.
Right now we don't have any notes
that are bound by the sales tax revenue.
We have in the past, we don't at the moment.
So it's one that's a good one for us to use
to support this.
And we have done this format before, back in 2011 when the city was creating the waterline
for the NSA center, the city entered into a note as well and that structure worked great
because we got the money from the federal government and paid that off in short order.
So very similar circumstances to that.
Council Member Lord.
Yeah, I know Bruce, you explained a lot of it to us. The hope is that we won't have to
use any of those funds because then that pulls away from the rest of the budget, isn't that
kind of, but it's guaranteeing that we would if needed. Am I misunderstanding or
understanding it correctly?
Well, to the extent that the intent right now, and according to the bonds, is it will
be an interest only.
And so right now we would pull the funds probably from capital projects because that's what
it relates to.
But in order to get the financial institutions that might be investing in it to want to
do so, we need to give them a cash flow that shows that we can actually do this.
Okay. Yeah, that's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that.
But we'll actually pay it out of capital projects.
Council Member Smith.
Yes. Thanks for being here. My question, it's just regarding interest rates.
I recognize that us voting today to approve gives you that flexibility to really maximize
when the rates could be most favorable. Just for our own benefit, how are you noticed,
how volatile is our interest rates right now, given macro trends and everything
going on internationally? Like is that affecting rates at all or is it just sound?
Council Member, you did hit the nail on the head. Interest rates are very volatile and
I do have a write-up on the market if you'd like. I'm happy to leave this with you.
So our market in the taxis and bond space moves somewhat in tandem with treasury notes and
treasury bonds and those have been very volatile since the beginning of March.
Just today, our benchmark actually decreased 10 basis points or a tenth of a percent.
And that's a large jump for our market. And so we will continue to monitor the market,
given the circumstances, internationally. And no one can time the market perfectly, but
we'll certainly do our best. It will be bid out to institutions, and so the city will
be getting several bits back. I anticipate we'd award it to the best bid. But yes, interest
rates. I'm glad we're not in the market this week, and I'm glad we weren't in the
market last week, but yes we'll continue to monitor that. Okay, Councilmember
Austin. I know we don't have a crystal ball for this.
Obviously we're going to be
spending more because we're going to be paying interest on this $30 million.
Has that been brought up with the state leaders and have they indicated
that because they are pushing back the time that we're going to be able to
get this the the money from the state that is going to incur more cost on the
city are they going to add the additional amount that we're going to be
paying for interest to the amount they give us we we have requested from the
state some additional funding for this particular project and to the extent
that they provide the additional funding that will free up other dollars
that we're spending on it right now to be able to cover the debt the debt
payment the interest payments for a couple of years so I think we'll be
fine in the end. We've received a very,
let's say, confident but certainly
encouraging reports back from our state leaders that are a part of the city and
they indicate that they think that they'll be able to get the additional
funding through the the additional vehicles that are now available that
that weren't available 12 months ago.
So we're very hopeful that that'll happen.
We're also hopeful that we can talk the state
into accelerating the payment for this amount
and that we won't have the debt for as long.
I don't know if that can happen or not.
This is our fallback position,
so I'm comfortable with the fallback position.
Don't love it, but I'm comfortable that we can handle it
and then see if we find financially.
And then one additional question, does this bond put us at risk for a future bond that
we may need?
Well, we've already talked about a bond for next year for the water department.
That's one of the interesting things about having the different funds that we have and
fund accounting in a municipality is that the money and the fund that's paying this
debt is not connected per se with the other bond and the water bond that we'll be asking
for will be supported by the water rates in that particular fund.
And the last we talked, and I haven't had Matt do it recently, but the last we talked
we had a lot of bonding capacity in both the water department and the general fund
to be able to cover both of these okay.
Now, when you say will it affect us, yes, it will affect us.
Your overall debt load always affects you.
But I don't think that it's going to be detrimental enough that we wouldn't be able to move forward.
And if it is, quite candidly, we would simply not pull the next bonds until these are off
the books and then we would move forward with that.
Thank you.
Council Member.
So are we going to pull all full 30 million or is it possible we can pull fractions of it at a time or?
I am so glad that you asked that because we've had this conversation of how to structure it
and there are a variety of ways of structuring it.
If we get the flexibility of pulling it down like a line of credit, so to speak,
what we would end up doing is paying a higher interest rate.
If we pull it all at the same time, then you're able to get a lower interest rate,
and any excess funds will then deposit into the PTF, or more likely this other type of fund
that is specifically designed to make sure we don't get in trouble with what's called rate arbitrage,
which is something that municipalities can do because we are borrowing money tax-free,
and then we're investing it in potentially taxable situations.
they don't encourage you to try to make a lot of money by doing that, which municipalities could.
And so the delta between those two is not great enough to cause me to want to go one way or the other.
And so as we're talking with the institutions, we'll see what they propose and what works out the best for us.
Our intent right now would be probably to take it all down at the same time and get the lower rate.
I know this is not ideal or what we had planned.
If we don't pull this bond, our only other option is to stop the project now, right?
Correct.
Which I think is not a great idea because it's extremely painful for our citizens already.
Do we have any indication if the two-year mark of pay from the state is that what they think
is that overestimated, is it underestimated?
How?
No, it's an expected estimation.
We know how much the fund that it's coming from is collecting right now.
Now, it's coming from a specific pot of money that was created by the state and the county
through some specific laws in the fifth of the fifth.
So there's this pot of money that's collecting money all the time, and it has certain projects
that have been designated to benefit from that pot of money.
Ours is not the top of the list right now.
It's down the list of ways.
And so what we've been able to do is calculate based upon how much that fund is accumulating,
how many projects are ahead of us.
We anticipate that we will be collecting in about two years. Okay. Thank you
Councilmember Wilding and then councilmember Smith
Just a couple of comments for some of the citizens that might be listening tonight. I
hope that everyone knows that we don't take
Getting a $30 million bond lightly and many of us have been working our guts out up at the
Including the mayor the council members and many of our C staff working up at the Capitol with our lobbyist to try to
avoid that and try to expedite this funding that could come, we've done everything that
we can and certainly don't take this lightly and however it would be a mistake with as
well as the project is going and our good city engineer working so hard to keep this
contractor moving it would be a mistake to slow them up or to heaven's forbid to
stop them.
And so it is an appropriate method to deal with that problem and I appreciate your
time and consideration, Bruce, that you put into this and to the rest of everybody listening.
All of us have been putting in time, concern and questions and effort to help solve the
problem, too.
But, you know, I also think this is probably an appropriate decision.
Thank you.
I want to preface that I also support the decision in keeping the project moving
along.
This is almost like a game theory-esque question.
if the legislature sees that we're doing the bond,
do we create any sort of perverse incentive for them
to say, oh, well, you're already bonding for this,
so you're not as much of a priority for us anymore?
And is there any way that we can mitigate that risk?
Is that just us being good at our job
of going to the Hill more frequently,
or just any thoughts on that?
There's always that possibility.
And it's a risk that certainly I'm willing to take because it is really critical that
we keep this project moving.
We have it to the point that is we're going to be needing to push the boxes very soon,
you know, within the next few months.
And so to keep it going to that point, we need to get all of the infrastructure underneath
the railroads now and then if any delays were to happen then it wouldn't be that critical
but we really need to move forward. We've worked all of the details out with the engineers
from Union Pacific. We've got great designs. We've got the people in place. We've got
all of the deployment of equipment and manpower is here. We need to just keep going and
And so if that happens, I would be disappointed,
but it's not the end of the world.
Awesome.
And if I can just take a point of personal privilege
real quick, just as the one member of the council
who wasn't on the council last year
when this decision was made,
I really do feel like this group
has made the right decisions leading up to this moment.
Like there's no way to anticipate
how the legislature is going to change things.
And so I just wanted to say as the one maybe impartial one who wasn't part of the decisions that have led us to this point
I think moving the project along to get us to where we are has been the right call by my fellow committee member council members
So I just want to say I'm I'm in this with you all and I appreciate being to work on this and that we can move it forward
All right. Any other question? Thank you for coming tonight. We're really grateful
Thank you for working so closely with us and we really appreciate our relationship. So thank you
Thank you so much. Really lefto team is the best team. You know it and thanks for bringing the hat. There's another one
Hey, we have three of them this year
Rodeos, so you gotta count
Thanks so much. All right. I do I have a motion I move that we approve resolution
2026 dash 21 second. Okay. It was moved by council member Austin seconded by council member wilding roll call vote, please
Council Member Smith. Yes. Council Member Lord. Yes. Council Member Austin. Yes. Council Member
Aston. Yes. Council Member Wilding. Yes. Motion passed. Okay, great. Thank you everyone for your
work on that. Moving on, we are to our tentative budget and we do not pass our final budget until
June, but I believe that Stephanie is going to go through our budget process so that everyone can
get psyched about it. Yes thank you Mayor Council good evening. Before I get
started I'm going to invite Meryl Terry up. He's our finance manager and he's been
instrumental in helping us pull together the data that's in the budget
tonight as well as with Bruce and all the department heads has been a
collaborative effort. So I'll be going over the slides here to give you a
Fraud kind of overview and a little bit of the detail and then if you want even more detail
We can have Merrill pull up the
Documenting your packet if you so choose and we can really get down to
Every little line item if you want to
Great councilmember Lord has a question. Oh, yes
This goes to what councilmember Wilding said about the previous thing so the people that are watching or learning
this by no means is a final budget and we don't want people to think that as we
go through everything. I know last year from the time we started to the time we
ended there were a lot of changes and so I just encourage people to be patient
tonight is just the initial review and then a lot of work goes on and they've
done a ton of work and we compliment that we're excited to work with them
So, I just don't want people to get nervous and think, oh no, we're passing something
tonight.
Well, no, this is just the preliminary.
So.
Thank you.
I would like to add another brief interruption here as well.
I apologize.
This has been a very collaborative.
I promise I'll talk about it, not me.
This has been a very collaborative, and normally we would probably have Merrill
doing a lot of the presentation.
He's recently had a new baby, and so he's kind of been out of pocket for a bit.
and we appreciate him taking time away from that fun activity to come and be
with us this evening. All right okay we'll get on with the show here. Okay so
yes as mentioned it's the tentative budget for fiscal year 2027 and it's
I'm going to be presented here for consideration and vote.
So again, we'll be working on this through June, and this is just kind of the starting
point with the information in front of us today.
So to give an overview, so we operate with a budget year that goes from July to June,
And we try to manage the the growth that's happening in our in our city that we're seeing.
It creates challenges in the budget as we increase key services that residents want and need
and the priorities that are set forth by City Council.
The expenditures they're called appropriations and it's the maximum that we are allowed to spend by state law.
Revenues, we estimate these conservatively to reduce risk.
And then we match revenue types and cost types, and I'll go into that a little bit more detail
here shortly.
And then by state law, the budget must balance.
So a little bit about understanding the budget, what it means to balance a city
budget.
It's balanced if the projected fund is positive and also it must include an
unappropriate fund balance between 5 and 35% and at the end of the year part of a
balanced budget includes having those reserves available.
So budgeting for
cities serves a little bit different purpose than a lot different than
businesses do. So the goal of a business budget is primarily
We're focused on maximizing profits and could be aggressive in that goal and they may or may
not achieve it. In government, we're more focused on providing services without a profit. And
so we're allocating kind of limited resources among competing needs of the community. With
With that spending is controlled through our budget and our procurement policy and the
proper reviews and approvals that happen with that.
And just to point out too, at the end of the year if we end up spending less than what
we budgeted, it's because we've really done our work at keeping costs down, following
the procurement policies.
and some of it too is it's not so the timing of when we hire people and that
sort of thing can cause excess in in what we spend so we always want to make
sure we're putting the full amount that could be spent for a position or a
given program even if it may start mid-year so when you're looking at that
that excess keep that in mind.
Let's see. So with prioritizing in the budget, it's getting
our vision to align with limited resources. So if you picture this piece of farmland here
and the limited amount of resources on that, and then all the farmers there with their
animals needing that same resource. If everyone used it all up at once, then there wouldn't
be anything left if we didn't replenish it. So for local government it's similar. Our resources
are the financial resources and those can be limited and there's a lot of need across the
different departments. So you have your police and streets and some of that rely on each
other. If you don't keep your streets maintained the police don't have a good road to drive
on to get where they're needing to go so
yeah if we if this just kind of
illustrates that if we're not prioritizing that we're not funding the
things that we need to fund so
priorities staff does try to come forth
with their needs of course the City Council reviews ultimately the budget
request and would direct to any level of importance and not all costs are
created equally. Essential services are prioritized and cost cuts occur by
reducing or eliminating the least crucial one compared to others.
For revenue
stability, property taxes are the city's most stable source of revenue. Then
And the service fees, like the garbage collection fees, storm water and street lighting, those
should cover just the basic expenses for those services.
And then the less stable that vary based on economy, franchise taxes that are related
to energy costs such as gas and electricity, they're a little bit more volatile and also
So slightly more volatile would be sales taxes based on consumers spending habits and that
sort of thing, if the economy were to change like it did back in 2008 to 2010 and people
really stopped their spending back then.
So we try to be real careful there as we're estimating our sales tax revenues.
revenues. And then the least stable would be those more related to development and as
development slows and space becomes more limited within the city. We're going to naturally
see those become less. And then another revenue to mention is the interest revenue that
it's used on whichever fund it's earned in,
but it's not really a source that we can always count on.
So then we have these different expenditure types.
And as we go through the budget,
we try to identify and match these up.
So there's primary services such as street cleaning
and maintaining the parks.
Some services are discretionary,
meaning that they may or may not happen as funds allow.
Then each of those can be recurring or non-recurring in nature.
Some primary services that are recurring, for example, are park restrooms must be cleaned
regularly and garbage cans must be emptied weekly.
Some primary services that occur less frequently or one time could be, you know, prairie farms
is had flooding at times and so the kind of unplanned one time where we have to go
and repair something.
So matching types of expenditures becomes very important and
it's something we pay careful attention to. I try to think of this and
illustrate it as matching apples to apples, matching ongoing revenues
with ongoing expenditures to ensure long-term stability and that apples to
oranges don't match. So the oranges being the one time.
So having a structurally
balanced budget means matching these recurring revenues to recurring
expenditures and not only should recurring expenditures be funded with
recurring revenues, the most critical should be funded with the most stable.
So carrying on with the apples-to-apples analogy here in this
scenario, some of the recurring revenues, the property taxes, the ongoing tax base,
sales tax base, franchise taxes, we look at those to pay for our recurring costs such
as the personnel, salaries and benefits, routine services, maintenance and repairs, our police
fire and protection and that sort of thing.
The apples to oranges illusion is when we try to take those one-time revenues and pay for the ongoing recurring costs.
So it's really better to match up one-time revenues such as grants and the building permits, development fees,
any surplus transfers to one-time costs, such as we see in capital projects, any
major equipment purchases, and the development costs in any startup
programs, such as we had recreation startup one year. And now they have
ongoing revenue to support their their program.
And that using oranges to pay
for Apples creates future gaps.
So looking at the different funds, and I know that's a little bit challenging to see, but
we do have these different funds for different purposes.
And as we're going through the various requests or needs of the city for the upcoming budget
year, we look at these independently.
For the general fund, that's where mostly the operations of the city comes out of except
for the fire and police and the water.
Those are in separate, their own separate restricted funds.
And then let's see, you have our capital projects funds.
A lot of those revenues are, like I said, are grants.
We have the Class C road fund, that's for major street maintenance and repair projects,
and the revenue on that comes in from fuel taxes and the portion of the sales taxes that
gets allocated to our city.
It cannot be used for any salaries or wages that is not related to that specific road
maintenance.
And also just to point out that the revenues remain in those funds and they can't be used elsewhere.
And so taking that fund structure and just kind of showing it in our basket, fruit basket here.
Governments, we use separate funds like the different fruit baskets and we don't mix the contents when comparing.
And you want to keep them in their matching basket or fund type.
And
then restricted funds such as these here, the Capital Projects, road maintenance, water, fire police, they cannot be used to pay for general fund operating expenses.
So I went to a conference last week, it's the Government Finance Officers Association. A lot of the cities or counties, schools are part of that.
they teach a lot of best practices and we tend to follow their recommendation
and best practices and what we apply as well. So when it comes to the fund
balance, regardless of the size, the unrestricted budgetary fund balance in
the general fund should be no less than two months of regular
general fund operating revenues, roughly 17%. You've seen us target that
around 18 to 20 percent is what we've tried to do. And by doing that, it mitigates
risks in the revenue volatility or if there were a disaster and helps
maintain the bond ratings. And they also recommend if funds are to be used it
should be ideally replenished in one to three years to replenish the fund
balance.
So here we are with the budget timeline. This process started back in, at least January.
We, Merrill and I do a lot of prep probably even before that, leading up to that, getting
it ready, but January we really start to dive into the numbers. Our sales tax, the
way we receive that it's a two month delay and so we can't get started too
soon with our projections where we don't have all the all the information at
that time but we do start working on on the expenditure side and with this
budget timeline here we are tonight with the with the tentative budget and the
budget review committee will be meeting tomorrow to review their role is
is to certainly ask questions of what's in the budget
to help us connect and explain with residents on it.
But really it's about helping the understanding
of what's in there.
So they've helped us build the budget book.
They've recommended some improvements
of how things are communicated and illustrated
so that it's easier to be understood.
We do have an opportunity to have more budget discussions
and in May there's two council meetings that we could if we needed to we will
certainly be working as staff up through the June meeting with that there
will be another public hearing on the final budget so tonight's the public
hearing and another one in June so the public does have an opportunity to come
and and give their input on what's in the budget and then our fiscal year
begins July 1. We do have some key deadlines that we have to meet so before
the first meeting of May is when we have to adopt the the tentative budget we
typically have done it earlier allows more time to get out to the public and
for everyone to start looking at it so we do try to not wait that long till we
until we review the tentative budget. And then for the property tax rate, it gets
ca- that's something that's ca- and I'll go in a little bit more detail in that too,
but it's something that gives is given to us by and calculated by the county
auditor. They typically should give that to us right before that June 10th
meetings. Sometimes we're dropping it in the day of so nonetheless but we do have
to certify it back to them by or report back by June 22nd and so if by chance we
don't get that certified tax rate by June 10th there could be a chance of a
special meeting if we had to because of the timing of that second meeting and
June would be passed the deadline for that. And I just want to point out that we are not
proposing it right now in the tentative budget any property tax increase.
If we were we would
need to be following the truth and taxation process and there's a pretty detailed process
to have to go through to do that. And then City Council would adopt the final
budget before June 30th because of when the certified tax rate is due that's why
we kind of bumped that up earlier. Okay.
So, for our budget process, we look at our prior year as a starting point. We adjust for
any current year trends that we're seeing based on the economy. This year, Merrill helped
really go back and review historical spending, kind of line by line, and recommended some
changes there we go in and we change make input that changes by department
and fund we look at any current projects that may have a carryover into the next
fiscal year such as the large 146 south railroad underpass project we estimate
revenues and we'll continue to keep looking at those as we get more data
to help us fine-tune those estimates. When expenses come in higher than revenues, that's
when we need to prioritize and counsel is certainly, you know, a help with that too.
And then kind of mention these other things already.
So our general fund revenues, as
As we're looking at the trends here, and I just want to point out that as we go into
some of these projections and into next year, I just want to remind everyone that there
are estimates and we don't necessarily have control over the amounts and they can be unpredictable
with the economy, consumer spending and that sort of thing.
Our underlying approach has been to be a conservative and in order to reduce risk.
So for property taxes they are remaining level plus growth but it and I it's this
blue line right here on the chart you can see where in 24 it took a dip there
that's that was when the referendum happened and there was an overpayment
so it was adjusted and the money got taken back in the next fiscal year.
and then why you're seeing a slight increase now is not because we're
proposing to raise property taxes. It has to do with our Eastern Bluff Dell
economic development area expiring and we'll now see those property taxes shift
out of that fund and it'll show up in ultimately our Fire and Police
Protection Fund because that's where property taxes go but what that does is
it also there's an offset in the management fee we're not going to be
getting that revenue anymore so it looks like an increase overall but it's not
really. Cells taxes are fairly, we're seeing a fairly consistent incline with
with online shopping continuing to be probably the bigger driver there.
And then, so modest growth, we all know we have a new grocery store and there's some
other dining areas that are opening and that sort of thing, but keeping in mind that they
can be erratic and then also just to point out that we do have this two month delay
and the data that we're looking at is from January right now.
So development, housing is slowing with project, so let's see what one is this one, licenses
and permits right here.
So it's slowing.
The projects that we're aware of right now, they would either be completed in this fiscal
year or next.
So we kind of spread the revenue that we're expecting between those two fiscal years
but it would not happen in both. So as we get closer to the June we'll be able
to probably adjust our estimate there and show that a little bit more closely.
And then the fee increases those are tied to cost recovery such as the
garbage collection and that sort of thing.
Okay so this is we do get a lot
of questions and here's some misunderstandings regarding property
taxes. So I just wanted to dive in just a little bit and show this is what a current or what
a current resident would receive for their last year's property tax notice. And I'm again
just going to state there's no property tax increase currently being proposed. So just
want to walk through the details with you. Things to point out on this when you
get this statement is the change in the market value. There is a 45% resident exemption reduction.
When we look and talk about the Bluffdell City portion, I've – it's hard to read
up there, but this is the part we – that comes to our city and that we're talking
and about when it comes to property taxes.
If any entity were to be doing a property tax increase, they're going to tell you that
change as well as when their public hearing for that is as they do have to go through
the truth and taxation process.
And so just to kind of show you a little bit bigger picture here, the portion that
we're talking about of your total property tax statement is just under 10% of Bluffdell's
share of that. And as time has gone on and other entities have raised their tax rates
and we have not, that portion continues to go down.
So with the certified tax rate
In order to be fair to the taxpayer, truth and taxation prohibits units of local government
from obtaining windfall revenues as a result of revaluation or equalization projects as
required by Utah state law.
So what that means is as Utah state property, sorry, as property values rise, the property
tax rate must fall and that adjusted rate is what's called the certified tax rate
and that is calculated by the county auditor not by us and with that also it
does not account for any type of inflation that might be occurring and
so as time goes on the city's purchasing power could decline as well so
So when the city does need to collect more revenue than the previous year, they must increase
the rate and in order to do that, they would need to go through a truth and taxation process,
which is a whole lot of checklist items and public hearing and noticing.
And again, this is not planned for 2026.
I just like to take the opportunity to explain that as it comes up.
It's one of those more complex things to understand.
And also, as even if the city doesn't raise their rate, your personal property tax bill
might still go up because of those highlighted things that were on that property tax statement.
If your specific property value increased much more than the average, resulting in
a higher share of the overall tax burden, or if there was a special specific voter
approved bond that was passed for a new school or that sort of thing, or if another entity
raised their rate, such as the water district or any of other entities on that property notice.
So here's how our certified tax rate shows historically, and you can see over the last
five years it's been declining, maybe even longer than that.
The big jumps are when we had actual truth in taxation for a rate increase in 2017, which
I believe was for public safety costs, and 2019 is when we added the second fire station.
And then prior to that, only a couple other times has the city had a property tax increase.
And then we are expecting to receive our rate from the state auditor, like I said, in June.
Because we overlap in two counties, so ours tends to come last because they have to equalize
our rate across the two counties.
So we look to see how we're doing to our neighbors.
The line going across just shows where Bluffdell is.
Some of the ones below the line, they have a lot more retail and that sells tax to help offset their needs.
And there's ones that are part of UFA or sorry Unified Fire or some other special police district.
I also, we went through and made note of ones that did have increases last year and also
there was one because of new state legislature for whatever reason didn't get theirs.
there's came back rejected because they didn't meet all the requirements even
though they went through the process and and all of that so yeah we really need
to make sure if we were to do that that we're following all those things and
then also with that I did include the the fee and equivalent rate to show
that on ours.
Okay so now we'll kind of get into the budget itself and so at a
glance our general fund revenue is about 17 million dollars. By the time we put
some more changes and dropped it in the packet on Friday the use of fund
balance was $556,000.
Right now showing a 13% general fund cash balance. Now with that,
we do, we're still waiting for this year to finish and so that, depending on how this
year finishes, that actually could go up and we're still going to target that 18%.
And then just thoughtful planning to balance service levels, infrastructure needs and long-term
fiscal sustainability is our goal there.
So some of the strategic drivers here to retain our employees as we are a service organization
that is our biggest asset and also our biggest cost.
Maintain current service
levels in all departments. Limit our discretionary spending. There is a need
for additional police officers as part of the contract. Responsibly manage
growth and plan for the future. Maintain and invest in infrastructure,
structure, transparent funding sources, and sustainable financial future.
So some of the components here that are driving some of the increases.
We have an inflation rate just under 3% with fuel kind of going up and down.
We're going to have to keep an eye on that.
So, have 3% there, cost of living, 3% with that.
We did compare it as some other surrounding cities and this is a cost of living increase
only.
Some others are also doing a merit, but this is what we're proposing in this budget.
And then our benefit premiums right now coming back with our medical increasing 15%
and dental increasing 2%. We are going to be meeting with our benefit broker to
explore other options and try to analyze that the best we can with the impact to
the financial impact as well as to our employees of what that would do. And then
Then water rates from Jordan Valley water is increasing 4.5 percent and then the garbage
and green waste for a CPI increase from waste management of increasing 4.8 percent.
And then overall the contribution to the Fire Police Protection Fund overall will
remain flat but you'll see kind of it shift between the property tax as I
mentioned that with the EDA ending will go up a bit. Bruce wants to say something.
Yeah, pardon me for just a minute. We talked about different CPIs where we've
got the COLA up there and inflation rate of 3%. The garbage and green waste is
based upon a very specific CPI that relates to that particular industry and
our contract ties to that.
Historically, that has been less.
Then the general CPI. This year, last year, it's been a little bit higher, but it is reflective
specifically of that industry's costs and what's happening to them.
Okay.
So to support our growing city, we have these, even though the population and growth
might be slowing slightly. We are still growing in our service needs, which is influencing
our staffing and the demands for service, particularly in the public safety area, as
well as also communications with our residents that they're wanting more commu-, more information
more quickly so with this adding three police officers at mid-year and making
our part-time communication into a full-time and we
also looked at ways we
could reduce so some of these positions where they haven't been filled yet not
filling so removing two seasonal parks positions which would still leave them
with three and removing one street seasonal position which would leave them
with with one and then in water I believe removing two would leave them with no
additional seasonal workers for this budget year and then if you recall back
in November there was a budget adjustment for to add a part-time firefighter
position to help with the the major road project being that underpass project
and having staffing at both stations and having the response time needed and
so at that time we did not add any revenue to cover that position. Next year
we will see the full year of that and so and then also with certain vacant
positions not being filled where appropriate so if we need to fill the
position we will but if it's in an area that it's appropriate to not we
looked at doing that.
So with with our general fund revenue breakdown so
So sales tax remains our largest revenue, but it is volatile.
Property taxes being the most stable, again, going to Fire Police Protection Fund.
And then the charges for services such as garbage, street lights, storm water, and
then some of those others you see up there.
Notable mentions that we took a conservative budgeting approach.
development related revenues are expected to be down and then again the
Eastern Bluff Dell EDA contract period ending. So the top spending areas in the
general fund, that contribution to the Fire and Police Protection Fund, parks
and recs, administration, sanitation, facilities and streets. And then notable
mentioned here, we did have citywide reductions in the training travel,
equipment supplies, and shop charges, as well as not filling some vacancies. And you'll see that
in the packet, we went through and highlighted the lines that were decreased to see that we
We really did try to go across the board and reduce some discretionary spending.
Facilities is increasing for the general fund portion of the debt payment on the new public
works complex that's starting next fiscal year.
This one we were able to use fund balance.
So now going forward, we're going to be pulling from it's split with water.
So half comes from water and the other half comes from the general fund.
And then also seeing contract price increases, which Bruce mentioned for the sanitation.
And then we also have our animal control services that is contracted with the county.
Community events.
So the arena renovation is completed.
and just a reminder most of that was done with a $2.7 million grant. This
upcoming year we're going to be having a three-day rodeo with fireworks to
celebrate America 250. There is increased seating capacity and added ADA
standards with the bleachers now and then we've seen expanded events like
Like this last year we had the bull riding round page and we'll be having a monster truck
show which I believe just got advertised for the tickets.
Revenues typically come from sponsors, donations, a lot from ticket sales and some grants.
And then there's Old West days, sorry, the community events that receive some city
contributions and Ms. Bluff Dell does as well as I believe the arts.
And then so
total community event budget between all of those is 396,000.
So the
The Class C road funds are allocated based on state distributions that they calculate.
They look at the city's road miles and considering paved and unpaved as well as population and
distribute that.
We're looking to see about 1.8 million.
most of that being spent on a road maintenance schedule to keep our roads
maintained and then some equipment that can be paid for from Class C roads as
they're related to it is a bucket truck. Our current one only holds one person
and for safety they have requested to get one that can hold two and then
and also an emergency light tower, an emergency message board that helps with notifications
on the roads.
So the economic development area or redevelopment area, these are separate funds.
So the Eastern Bluff Dell has it ended, and we received our last payment this fiscal year.
The gateway, so the revenue left in there is is just interest. The gateway RDA will
expire in fiscal year 20, sorry 27 next year. And then the Jordan Narrows EDA has
reached its contract terms and capped out. So it's a, they are locally
designated areas aim to improve public infrastructure, create jobs, attract commercial and residential
development and stimulate economic growth and there is a restriction for a restricted
fund use for affordable housing and so we want to make sure we keep that in mind as
well.
So as a note that $400,000 in the Jordan Narrows is just the interest expense.
Yes.
Excuse me.
interesting there is no other revenue source there
okay and for impact fees so
these fluctuate based on development activity and again this this as projects
kind of span both this year and next we we try to estimate our best guests on
that but they will not occur in both and again we'll be able to know a
bit more about that by the time we get to that June meeting.
And there is a current impact fee study underway that would probably be coming for review in
the near future for how these funds can be used against which facilities.
In capital projects, obviously this is kind of the bigger one with the big
project, major project that we've mentioned and with that bond
anticipation note and state funding coming for that. There's also a
cinchway bridge, pedestrian bridge that is tied to a grant and then also a
potential fire station 93 if a grant is awarded for that as well.
So because most of our resources are going towards the railroad crossing project, anything
left is really going to be either a shared project currently already underway or a grant
related.
So the bulk of it, here's a more detailed list, so funded with capital, fund balance
and transfers, they're on the left of about just under $2 million.
And then the big portions of those that are funded with grants, other governmental reimbursements
are shared, is that larger $66 plus million, bringing the total to about $68 million
in that capital projects.
Now, we do have some items that were removed, some requests that were removed or reduced.
So such as a forklift is needed.
These are things kind of – eventually, we'll need to address these or circle back
around to see what the needs are.
A Rose Creek Trail connector, the miscellaneous traffic calming measures was reduced and
And then others based on grant funding and then future needs, because we do tend to look
out five years when we're looking just to put this on the radar, there will be a need
for a new fire engine, ambulance, vector, stormwater service truck, and ongoing road
maintenance projects and maintenance.
So the capital projects, that's just a little bit, so it can be a lengthy list
and there's always a need to have an end-of-year transfer to help fund some of these where we
can.
So in our water fund, there's some major investments continue in infrastructure and water delivery
and a new tank and pump station for zone 2 West and the effluent water reuse as well
as rate adjustments anticipated, as was mentioned, and it's about $21 million there.
And then the portion of impact fees for the water tank,
okay.
Fire Police Protection Fund.
So, police with an increase by additional FTEs and with that contract growth.
And then the fire department, again, that full year of that part-time position, so funding
that for the full year, and then also just continuing to maintain staffing for both stations,
stations, as well as like sometimes we, they're getting overtime for the callbacks. It's nice
to have our full-time captains and lieutenants now that they're able to come back. However,
they are higher paid and so it does bring up the overtime a little bit. And so, but
But ultimately the achievement of keeping the stations open and staffed has been a remarkable
change since adding those full-time fire positions.
And just to show the history of property tax revenue to public safety costs, and I did
drop in to include also the public safety fee.
So, the red is the costs and then the blue is the property tax revenue.
And so, the Fire Police Protection Fund was created and 100% of property taxes goes towards
public safety.
Well, this I've said, sorry about that.
and then committing the most stable revenue.
Yeah. We are anticipating, let's see, we've, we've, we started the public safety fee in September of 2024.
And with this and looking at the revenues here, we are proposing a public safety fee increase with the, with the ongoing revenue to cover the ongoing costs there.
And
I didn't meant so we're looking at right now that fee to be around six
and a half to seven dollars increase. Again we'll look at that as it gets
closer and hopefully be able to determine what that will be by June and we
would bring back a consolidated fee schedule where that would actually be
adopted.
The local building authority so this is a special fund to
facilitate construction and financing of city buildings such as the City Hall
Building and the Public Works Complex. The Public Works is done and they've
moved in and have been working out of that and it's a pretty neat building to
go tour. So what's left in there is now the the debt payments that that we
see in there.
So getting towards the end here, just to summarize the budget results, mentioned
a lot of this, but also with those police officers adding three vehicles, I don't think I mentioned
that. And that's pretty much the summary there. And then looking ahead, let's
see. Yeah, just
looking ahead to the future, reduce book continuing growth, continue to higher than average inflation,
strategic investment in infrastructure, and community engagement and transparency is always
goal for us as well and just future decisions on the public safety fee and
property tax rates. And just as the as the saying goes you know it's we're looking
ahead and hindsight's always 2020 so with that it is the tentative budget and
and it will change by June,
but this is what we have before you tonight.
Happy to pull up the document in your packet.
Merrill, I think, is ready to do that if we need
and if you had specific questions that we could jump to
or open it for discussion in the public hearing
and setting the time and place
for the final budget in June.
Okay, we will actually open the public hearing first
first and then bring it back to the council. So if there is anyone here tonight that would
like to make public comment regarding the tentative budget, we'd love to hear from you.
And just tell us your name and what city you live in.
You might need to keep those tissues on hand, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor Hall and council
members. Sorry I'm nervous. My name is Helen Smith and I'm a resident of Bluffdale. Thank you
for the opportunity to speak tonight.
I'm here to share my experience navigating the victim support
system in our community. In November of 2024 the police came to my residence on a call of domestic
violence. After I filed the police report the officer gave me the phone number for my victim
advocate. At such a scary time, I needed the resources, support and legal
guidance that only a victim advocate could provide me. I proceeded to call
four separate times throughout November and December, each time no one
answered. I'd leave a message and I would receive no callback. Over the
following year, I would sporadically try again, but I always got the same
results.
As I tried to reach out to other places for information, I was always
redirected to contact my local victim advocate for the best resources. Defeated,
I proceeded through the judicial system and rebuilding my life without the
necessary support.
In March of this year, I decided to try calling again. When I
received the same results, I called the front desk of the Saratoga Springs
Police Department and the officer helped connect me to the victim
advocate. At last I thought I can finally receive some help. Unfortunately
because our services are contracted through Sarah Tuka Springs, her resources
and professional connections were only for Utah County. She sent me a few
resources but many of them do not offer services to Salt Lake County. After a
follow-up phone call she sent me a list from a previous employee. That list
was years old. I called the Riverton victim advocate but she said she can only do so much
since my case is not assigned to her police department. All of this is to express Mayor
Holland Council members that there is currently no assistance or services available to victims
of crime in Bluffdale. Our city needs its own dedicated victim advocate with roots
in the community, connections throughout Salt Lake County, and access to resources for the
community they are serving. Thank you. And will you make sure to leave your contact information
for me? Yeah. With Tami. I can, yes. Okay. Thank you so much for coming tonight, Helen.
The budget for the police department is really important and that was helpful for us
and we'll keep in touch.
Is there anyone else here tonight
to make comment on the tenet of budget?
All right, we will go ahead and close the public hearing
for the tenet of budget and bring it back
to the council for questions for our finance department.
Council Member Smith.
Mayor, just a parliamentary question.
Am I allowed to reference the public comment
that was made at all or?
Well, for funding you mean?
Yes, let's say.
Well, we'll just discuss it after the meeting.
Okay.
Because it's part of the contract that we need to discuss.
I just, if it's okay to say I'd like to reach out as well.
Based on the work I do, it's not a domestic violence coalition.
And just want to say thank you for being so vulnerable to talk about that in a public place.
That's all.
Thank you.
Anything else on the questions for our accounting team?
I just want to make note.
I want to say thank you first of all this it did not happen overnight this was a
lot of work and it was a lot of redo and redo and redo and I would like to thank
staff for all of the work but I also would like to say thank you to our
council all of our council members took time and they all came in and met
individually with our finance department and it really it really shows your
dedication to our city all of you for taking the time to come and go through
line by line and and go through the budget it's a huge sacrifice and I
want to thank the council for doing that ahead of time and because we have
each taken so much time combing through this and working with with our
staff and your presentation was just so thorough
on the process of budgeting.
Hopefully we've been able to educate the public a little bit
about our process and how things have to be paid for.
But also, thank you again to the council
for going through and giving feedback
before tonight's meeting, because that feedback was really
essential to what we see tonight.
So having said that, any other questions for our staff?
Okay. And that's why
there are no questions because everyone worked so it makes me a little
emotional because everybody has worked so hard and spent so many hours here
going through this budget. So I just, wow, thank you. Well then I think we are
ready. Now I just want to make, I didn't make note of this, but the
public hearing was for the RDA and it was for the LBA as well because we're
gonna have to go into those meetings because the tentative budget is for those
boards as well they're separate boards and so we will actually have those
meetings tonight as well but we did have the public hearing for the entire
tentative budget for those other boards. All right do I have a motion?
I
Second.
Right.
Thank you.
As moved by Council Member Austin, it was seconded by Council Member Wilding.
And we do need a roll call vote, please.
Council Member Lord.
Yes.
Council Member Austin.
Yes.
Council Member Austin.
Yes.
Council Member Wilding.
Yes.
Council Member Smith.
Yes.
Motion passed.
Okay.
Thank you.
We will be moving into our next board meeting.
We are in the local building authority.
Everybody, everyone is in attendance.
We have had our public hearing
and we do need to adopt the tentative budget for the LBA.
Just for the public's purpose, the LBA board is the council,
but this board is for financing our buildings,
our fire department, our public works department
and our city hall.
Do I have a motion?
I'll move we approve Resolution 202618 LBA. Second. All right. It was moved by
Councilmember Astin. It was seconded by Councilmember Austin. Roll call. Vote
please. Trustee Austin. Yes. Trustee Astin. Yes. Trustee Wilding. Yes. Chair
Hall. Yes. Trustee Smith. Yes. Trustee Lord. Yes. Motion passed. Wonderful.
All right. Not seeing any other discussion for the LBA will adjourn
and then I'm going to turn it over for the next meeting
to Chair Lord.
Welcome to our Bluffdale redevelopment agency board
meeting.
Quick roll call.
Do we need to do that?
Formal, we're all here.
Do I have any discussion or do I have a motion?
We approve resolution 2026-19 RDA.
Second.
Okay.
We've got Council Member Aston with,
we don't do this often, with the motion and Council
Member Austin second.
Do a roll call vote, please.
Board Member Aston.
Yes.
Board Member Wilding.
Yes.
Board Member Hall.
Yes.
Board Member Smith.
Chair Lord.
Yes.
Board Member Austin.
Yes.
Motion passed.
Okay.
With that, do I have a motion to end the meeting?
I move we adjourn.
Hang on.
All in favor.
Aye.
We are officially adjourned from the RDA Board.
Excellent job.
Chair Lord.
Awesome.
Okay.
Okay, we do have staff reports and additional council discussion.
I do have an item for the council.
Will you please make sure to put in your T-shirt order?
That's the T-shirt for the year.
Also, the Chamber has an award, and I don't know that it's been announced publicly,
but hopefully you received the email for one of our small businesses.
Will you, after the meeting, just let me know if you can attend that on April 29th?
And don't forget to oh I'll forget so don't you forget to tell me and
Were there any other items of
Course our calendar is all on the city website. So any events or activities miss Bluffdell is coming up
But yes, yeah, I saw the email for the police
recognition luncheon next that's right and it would be helpful if you can
reply to that email and let them know if you can go that way they can kind of
plan seating so yeah great thank you I have a discussion yep I got a couple of
calls this week about possibly putting a porta potty in the rodeo arena because
they no longer have access to the bathrooms in the parks building just
until our bathrooms that we're building are complete is that a
possibility. Yes. Thank you.
That's where? The rodeo arena. Just if someone's out walking
and they have a bathroom emergency. Well they're using, the rodeo arena is getting used now,
the warmer, the weather is warmer. I mean this is for active use right now. Yes, and
there's no air. I don't believe the bathrooms even in the park are open yet. Well, correct.
They've been able to use the bathroom that's attached to our current building, but we've
restricted that area as this construction is going on for the administrative portion of
that building.
That's why it's being requested.
I get it.
We'll have one delivered.
Thank you.
Sure.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Staff reports.
Didn't want to cover a lot of this stuff that's on the calendar at this time.
did want to report that the bathrooms are under way, the slabs have been poured,
we're expecting that they will be fully functional by the time we have our first
Big event in the rodeo arena. Apparently, they're not quite ready for these smaller events where people are just riding around, so
we'll make sure that we have a port-a-potty available from that standpoint.
And since Shane's here, I'll just ask him to make sure that that happens.
There we go.
We're excited to have the meetings coming up for the council.
look forward to those that are going to be coming down to the the league's spring
meeting this in a in a couple of weeks now that same week earlier in the week
I'll be down to st. George as well to the city managers meeting so if you need
me call me on myself certainly be available did want to report that the
project is moving forward on the trestle not excuse me I've been told
not to use the trestle because it's not. The railroad underpass project is moving forward.
We're seeing a lot of great progress there and we're excited to keep that moving.
Thank you so very much for passing the bonding so that we can continue that work.
Yes. Is that on schedule? It depends upon whose schedule you're using.
Michael is very effective at pushing, pushing, pushing, and the contractors aren't always
as effective at making it happen according to his schedule, but between the two, we are
moving forward and getting it done, and we appreciate that very, very much.
I guess I only ask that, you know, because occasionally citizens ask us and want to know
You know, the end dates, we put that out there, but it's just nice to know if we can report.
Well, some of the challenges that come with respect to that as an example is working with Union Pacific,
you really can't set a deadline because they are going to do things on their timeline.
And so as we're coordinating different things with their approvals and moving forward,
there are some challenges there that we just simply can't overcome.
And then logistically, sometimes things will come up that were unexpected that delay it a bit.
We're not a long ways off. I would say we're still within a month or two of when we originally projected.
With Michael, he would say that we're right on track because he's going to continue to push that.
I think that the contractors are saying that they would like a couple more months.
and my vote's with Michael on this one. He's a force to be reckoned with. I would like
to say with respect to that and sometimes we don't have a great glimpse into other people's
lives and what they do on a day-to-day basis until we've walked in their shoes. I've
had the opportunity over the last few weeks to see some of the things that Michael goes
through in working with the contractors to look at line item details to make sure
that we are getting the value that we're paying for, and not paying for things that
are unnecessary, unneeded, or have no value to the project. And the amount of time he's
putting in on that and the stress and sleepless nights that he goes through, I'd just like
to say publicly thank you.
Mayor Hall?
Yes.
Can I just ask a question on that?
Yes, please.
Bruce, so I've forwarded you some information from residents about the traffic issues with
the detour.
Maybe just for everybody else's sake, do you want to give an update on those changes and
on how they've been resolved?
Yeah, the initial detour clearly did not work well, and part of it was because it wasn't
following the plan that the detour is supposed to take.
We've got that resolved now.
Now there are still a number of issues that have coming up just because traffic is taking
different routes now and that's a natural thing.
People find the easiest route for them, not necessarily the route that we do detour them
through.
That being said, we've received a number of emails as well besides the ones that you've
received that people were worried about speeding too much traffic in certain areas.
Because I've requested that the trailers be deployed so that we can see what's actually
happening and help to slow that down, we'll be deploying some tubes as well to make sure
that the speeding really is speeding, that we're seeing how bad it is, and also doing
traffic counts so that we can identify what level of patrols we need to order in those
different places.
So we are reacting.
We don't have a million police officers, so we can't have everybody on every street that the detourer people are taking.
But we are trying to curb it and making sure that we're keeping our citizens safe, our residents safe.
And thank you for addressing those things. And quickly, fairly quickly, I appreciate that.
Once again, sometimes doing it immediately is challenging, but we really have tried to
be responsive and get it to happen, and I appreciate the police department for how quickly they've
reacted to various things, including going out there and directing people when it was
really a mess.
Along those lines, the council just received an email regarding some traffic issues,
and sometimes it's hard when we all receive the same email and who's
responding to what and how are we responding on that particular email. Could
our city manager answer that in CCS so that it's just it's that way we're not
calling you and saying different things and we want to be able to be let's
let's is that okay with everyone on that email that we just received? I
believe Bruce was also included. He was. I was on that. He was but
But usually when he sees the council on it, he doesn't automatically respond.
He wants to know how the council wants to handle it, so we'll just work on a response
and make sure the council is involved.
Okay, that would be great.
Since we are talking about the police for just a minute, I would like to say that
I talked to the young lady that talked in the public hearing regarding the meeting
earlier before this meeting.
She had responded to us in an email, I think it was.
and I called her back and talked to her for a little while.
No, actually she called in and talked to Amanda.
That's how I got the information, I think.
Anyway, I called her and talked with her,
learned the back story of kind of what was happening
and what her frustrations were.
I reached out to the police department
and we went back and forth and discussed
what had been provided, how it was working,
how it wasn't working.
And they recognized that it is part of the contract
and have committed to make sure that they are
are stepping up and providing those resources
for our residents, just like they are for Saratoga
and doing that dual coverage for this county as well.
So they have made that commitment
and I appreciate them stepping up and taking care of that.
Thank you, I really appreciate that.
All right, any other council discussion?
All right, do I have a motion to adjourn?
Move for you adjourned.
Second.
All right, it was moved by council member Austin,
seconded by council member Aston. All in favor? All right. We're adjourned at 7.36.
Wait, Amanda's going to...